North Korea and diplomatic games; something has to give and negotiating with those who renege on promises in treaties is a problematic issue for the United States. Here are some additional random thoughts on this issue which span a few years of off and on thinking on the matter.
You can tell by looking at the general population of North Korea that the common citizen is under pressure and in poverty for the most part, but the armies are loyal and feed. The labor force is 10 million and they may be forced to fight along the military or killed, fear is the way they are controlled. They, that is to say the current regime prescribe to the worst of the Machiavellian principals. Their primary industries are military manufacturing. They also make power, electrical, also mine raw materials and manufacture chemicals too, they have polluted much of their farmland and have big problems with diseases and general health care; you are basically on your own and had better pay attention if you live there. Most of the electricity they make has been hydro which was bad during the drought, do you make power or save water. This changed as nuclear became more widely used, but unfortunately that lead to the present day problem of spent fuel rods being used to make bombs or long-range missiles. How long range, long enough to be a threat to our continent. Some of their electric generation has been from fuel and coal; 2/3 has been hydroelectric until now.
They grow many things such as Corn, rice, soybeans, wheat and raise hogs, chickens and cattle, they are also skilled fishermen and manufacturing fishing instruments.. We still found their exports to be small at under 1 billion per year, of course selling nuclear weapons would move that figure up double within a few years. There are more rogue countries, whom would buy them for sure. They wish to raise their 940 million per year exports, that is how they see they can accomplish that task. And we already know where the bulk of that money will be spent don’t we? Their military is not assisting their populations who live in fear every day of their lives. They have a limited steal industry and use that to make WEAPONS folks.
They export the most to Japan who in turn re-manufactures those components and sells them to people like us. Yep. Almost 40% of their exports go to the Japanese islands. South Korea 20.5% of exports, China also buys some things from North Korea. We end up with things from North Korea too in some of our products; similarly we end up with Heroine from Afghanistan poppies and Cigars from Cuba. They sell these countries such things as clothing, fishing lures, etc. I would not be surprised if you bought a flag after 9-11 that it came from china and that the fabric came from North Korea, seriously this is not funny.
They import from the same countries they export too, China, South Korea and Japan about the same amount, actually a little bit more. They import refined oil, coal, grain for cattle and livestock and food, some machinery and equipment (farming and other, but not a lot), certainly enough to use to fight a war. They do not buy enough to offset our incredible thirst for imports if we made deals with these other countries. After all if we boycotted automobiles Japan would crumble, South Korea has been shooting back at the boarders this time so trade with South Korea is a joke and look what we buy from Daewoo and the issues we have overlooked in that realm?
North Korean debt is about 19 Billion and this could be an issue as it was with Saddam and Russia and France. So we may have to fix this issue or at least make good on future purchases to China, Japan and S. Korea. Remember Hitler also strung out nations in debt until the fighting started. I sure love history. There currency the won has seen better days due to debt and shortages. The US has flat out given them aid in the past over 300 million in the past so no one can say we did not try. They took the money spit in our face and now holding the world for ransom and want to negotiate. Can you say with a poker face, kiss my ass, and be willing see you in the alley way. This is getting ugly and we should be prepared to go all the way and all out in a surprise first draw baseball bat to the head no holds bar. Human Rights abuses in North Korea, well we have discussed this with prior administrations too;
http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/19981128korea2.asp
You think that Saddam was bad, he was a pussycat compared to these people. Check out just some of these articles
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/right/north-korea-rights-abuses.html
and go get a copy of the most recent issues of Foreign Affairs Magazine too while you are at it. The regime has reached its final days. What is there to talk about? Talk is cheap. Give them till November 25 see why;
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/kowar/50-unof/un-2a.htm
Incidentally we are not the only people to give humanitarian aid, the EU has and so have countless non-profit organizations around the world. They have two satellites in space both should be destroyed immediately and a drop-dead date given; they are not owned by the Koreans, they lease them and are flown by Russia and China. Our allies should turn them off or we should turn them off forever or use them for intel. They have over 30 TV stations, which of course can broadcast propaganda. Worse than Iran for censorship; First the signals are to be scrambled and the air superiority won as the chaos of satellite communication and RF are taking out at AM 16, FM 14, short-wave 12. Russia and China hold much of their communication powers and should be able to assist.
They have somewhat extensive electric rail and I assume that runs on a near 600 volts or something due to the availability of hydro. We can either take out the hydro or if our super duper military attorneys fell that would not be a nice thing to do then we can allow them to operate and we can friggin cook our hotdogs on the rails after we take over the pig farms. Is it just me or is someone else thinking out their that attorneys deciding military targets defeats the definition of war and obviously prolongs war, since the enemies moral is not defeated as quickly causing more loss of life anyway? I mean come on get real. War is hell and to win it, you bring a little hell to your enemy? Otherwise do not even bother? Friggin attorneys deciding targets, please spare me the BS? Have they not already been the ones to cause the wars in the first place?
Hail Caesar, can you please help me out here with some verbiage to explain to these nice Internet viewers what to do with the attorneys and why? When to wage is even more important that what to go after. My grandfather was 200 miles off the course of NJ in a hot air balloon waiting weather to predict the best time to launch the invasion of Normandy, were some of my ancestors had lived in the 1200’s. Weather was important then during the Gulf war of 1991 and in the current conflict in Iraq, which just ended. Weather in North Korea and heat in seasons. We found the current weather not fun to fight in. We prefer Nov or April probably. Now is okay but that humidity is a bummer.
http://www.weatherhub.com/global/kn.htm
A war with North Korea is completely winnable and we should not unnecessarily forgo that option if needed and during the negotiation we must stand as JFK did against the Russians in Cuba. Luckily during this present period we have such a leader who can and will do what it takes in our white house.
End Part II
“Lance Winslow” – If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs